Wildlife Photography across the Water: Light

Friday 2 July 2010

Light

What makes a good image-the subject? maybe but i think its the light, You can have a great subject but if the light is crap then the image wont come alive, Soft warm light is the key, Early morning and late evening light is the most pleasing,Its one of the key elements behind any good image along with subject and composition, i read a book once where the author said that its not the subject thats difficult to get, its the light and i totally agree, I have been shooting the white tails for the last few weeks, i only go in the early evening as thats when the light will be best for my set up and although i have been getting plenty if images the sweet warm light has been difficult to get, moreover its been difficult to get all the elements to come together, The other evening i did have a female in front of me,very relaxed and drifted in between the shade and the light so i did get some ok images, the grass is growing and i may need to move the hide to get the deer in lower grass

Yesterday i watched the hummingbirds at the feeder and decided to try and grab some shots, Last year was a bad year for them and although we has some they were few and far between, As i set up i had one feeding in front of me, I used the D3s with the 600 and 1.4x along with the SB900 flash, I didnt use a better beamer as i was at minimum focus distance, The results were ok but the wings were totally blurred as expected so i decided to try a multi flash set up, This set up would be totally new to me, I set 2 SB600's infront of the feeder and the SB900 set close to a ply board behind the feeder, it took some fooking about with but eventually i started to see a result, I had the flashguns set in manual at 1/32 power which gives about 1/20 000 sec and i had the camera set to manual 1/200@ F16 and ISO 200, you can see its nearly there but not quite as there is a ghosting around the wings but not bad for a first try, i hope to refine the set up tomorrow, Its actually very addictive, i will also swap the feeder spout for a flower which i will fill with sugar water to make it look more natural, So my day consists of hummers during the day and deer in the evening, I have been baiting the foxes as well and watch them late at night-all in good time

Single flash-ISO 1600 and cropped 50%-no NR

Multi flash set up-50% crops

The good thing about the multi flash set ups is that you control the light, Without the flashguns the image was nearly black

Dave

2 comments:

Amila Kanchana2 July 2010 at 13:46
I totally agree with what you say about light. Beautiful photos! Like the hummingbirds best.
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Bobbster3 July 2010 at 08:49
Have to agree about the light definately best early morning /late evening. Humming bird shots are great, can they improve?
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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.